Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Random Pickings From "My Philosophy On Acting"

Yeah, I'm writing my philosophy on acting. It's going so and so. I write a bit then I feel like it gets convoluted and I start over again. I thought I'd share one bit of my thoughts though. Most of my philosophy comes from my complete and utter face-palming when I listed to the acting teachers I have met and what they teach. I mean... I am so un-impressed with every single one of them that I get pissed.

So what I do is I have conversations in my head, like a dialogue back and forth in an imaginative situation, let's the steam out, kind of like therapy. I think they all have a very mechanical, un-human, no soul, way of acting, or teaching or doing acting. It's as if they started philosophizing about acting and when they started to see things as a little bit different then usual, i.e as if they think they can see "behing the scenes" they stopped right there with their philosophy because they think they've "got it". But in fact you must stop there! You have to keep pushing on and thinking and thinking and putting the hours in, in your mind and soul.

A zen-master once said something along the lines of (yes, I am paraphrasing);

"When I started practicing buddhism I used to see mountains as mountains and rivers as rivers. When I got into a more intimate knowledge of zen I started seeing mountains as something OTHER then mountains and rivers something OTHER then rivers..." I feel like this is where all of my so called "teachers" have stopped their journey of the mind thinking "HA! I got it! I am so smart, I should be a teacher, people should listen to me". But nay, keep going, you havent reached the finish line yet, because this monk continued and said "...but once i fully understood what it was all about I once again saw mountains, as just that, mountains. And rivers, just as that, rivers" That is crucial!

T. S. Eliot said, in "Little Gidding";

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time

Journey on, journeymen, from mechanical acting to just being a human being that eats, drinks and sleep. Nothing more, nothing less.

This is but a bit of the conversations in my head.

Hm, made it sounds quite poetic towards the end. Complete works of shakespeare? Maybe I'll do one of me own!

Who rocks this blog

Leon Lynch, down to earth, love sailing, acting, photography and books! I should travel a lot more than I do.
I got more luck then I can shake a stick at, don't know why.
Got any questions? Email me at lleonlynch(at)gmail(dot)com